Please help me pick the right wood stove for our situation

[lavarock64]

I've been lurking a while and am greatful for the vast knowledge that has been shared here. My heating layout is complicated and I'm hoping for some knowledge here to help make sense of a reasonable solution.

Our home is a 90's vintage Cedar Lindel (Catherderal ceiling / Open Layout / Well insulated). The house currently heats the basment slab with 5 electical elements (night rate) in a 1,000 gallon tank in the basement. We have heating element in the upstairs but I have them shutoff because they require the tank temp. to be 140 vs. the basment at 110. We supplement the heat upstairs with a 21-30,000 K BTU freestanding stove. I should mention that the majority of the basment is a 1 bedroom apartment that we rent to a retired couple that like it warm (72). Ideally a gasification boiler would be great, but our budget with 2 kids is tight and we can't swing the $10K cost.

WIth this mess in mind, we are considering swaping the suplimental free standing gas firplace with a small would stove. (We have all the gear and woods needed to harvest our own) On the coldest day in the winter the upstairs will get around 50 degrees. We are heating around 1,500 square feet upstairs. Given that we would be heating from the coldest temp of 50 up to 70, would a small unit like the Jotel 602 work? This model appeals to me as it is very reasonable at $1,100 and has more units manufactures than any other.

A search on here revealed that folks were encouraging the installation of a Woodstock Keystone for a similiar situation.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[mellow]

What is your budget? You are going to need to include new venting with switching to a wood stove. The Keystone is a great stove for long controlled burns in small areas.

 

[lavarock64]

As far as budget goes, we could go up to the $2500 mark if needed. That is quite a difference from $1,100 (saving $ is why we are swwitching to wood in the first place). I guess if there are valid reasons to use a diifferent type of stove we would. Factoring into this project is the necassary piping to run up to the peak, ceiling box and roof pipe.

 

[nikolays]

X2.
If you have just one floor to heat WS keystone will work. For things like that theese stoves work very good. You can turn them down and have long and slow burn.

 

[mellow]

Price your piping first then figure out what you have left to spend on a stove, might be you only have enough to buy an Englander 17-VL.

 

[Grisu]

Would you mind explaining your situation a bit more? When you say you want to heat from 50 F to 70 F, does that mean you are turning down the heat during the day and it is 50 F when you come back home? Is the gas stove doing the exclusive heating upstairs? How much gas are you using during the coldest winter month (e. g. January)? How much room do you have to put a woodstove in? The Keystone has pretty large clearance requirements. It is also a catalytic soapstone stove which is better at giving relatively steady heat over the whole day. If you plan on only heating during the evening hours a steel stove that heats up comparatively faster may be a better option for you. However, even then it may take easily an hour until you will feel significant heat coming off the stove. I am also wondering whether the stoves you are considering may not be too small for your application. Is the stove supposed to provide heat during the night? Could someone fire it up again in the morning to keep it going 24/7?

In any case, get your wood cut, split and stacked ASAP. No matter which stove you will get, it will need seasoned wood with a moisture content of less than 20%. That usually requires 1 to 3 years of seasoning (depending on the type of wood) with lots of wind and sun exposure. Focus on softwoods and ash first, as those can be dry after one good summer. Make relatively small splits, stack in single rows and cover them on top.

Regarding your budget: Could you do the install yourself? Have you talked to your insurance?

 

[blades]

A 3 cubic ft firebox stove will get you where you need to go . You do not need to stuff it full all the time. You can always make a small fire in a big stove. Pushing the limits on a small stove just dosesn't work out. Budget wise the Englander 30 NC or the two bigger Drolets are likely the way to fly, Good basic EPA plate steel stoves dang near bullet proof.
You will need a 6" flue system double wall to ceiling transition the triple wall for the rest - single story install will Run $700-1100 for the flue. If you do the install, if you farm it out that will add to the cost. You will likely need a better or higher insulated hearth pad to set the stove on as well so that would add some more cost again moderate if a diy project so something else to consider. The Drolets and Englander are some of the best bang for the buck units out there .

 

[begreen]

+1 for a Keystone or a Blaze King Sirocco 20. Another alternative would be a convective stove with some extra mass like a PE Alderlea T5, Jotul F45, Quadrafire Yosemite, Napoleon 1100C, or an Enviro Boston 1200. The little Jotul would work too as a chill chaser, but you will be refilling frequently. It takes a lot of btus to raise an interior and all the furniture from 50 to 70. Having a bit larger stove will provide more continuous heat and will allow you to more easily keep the upstairs in the 65-70 range.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Given that we would be heating from the coldest temp of 50 up to 70, would a small unit like the Jotel 602 work?

Technically, given good enough insulation and enough time, yes. However, the same could be said of a single candle. You'd be way better off with a more conventionally sized stove that doesn't require rebuilding every few years.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

A 3 cubic ft firebox stove will get you where you need to go

Yes it will. And then some. And then some more. Did you miss in the OP where it states "well insulated" and "1500 sq ft"?